


The Humanity of Heroes

by estelraca



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-18 04:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13092480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelraca/pseuds/estelraca
Summary: Sometimes Ikari Gai forgets that his crewmates aren't human.  At other times it's impossible to forget that they're aliens.  When Marvelous is injured, Gai finds himself mediating between his captain and a human who blames the Gokaigers for the Zangyack invasion.





	The Humanity of Heroes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aquabluejay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquabluejay/gifts).



> Warning for medical description of injuries in the section with Marvelous. I absolutely adore playing with the Gokaigers, and getting to play with them actually being alien. Thank you so much for the prompts, and I hope you have a great holiday season!

_The Humanity of Heroes_

Gai forgets, usually, that his crewmates aren't human—that his crewmates aren't _Japanese_.

Normally it doesn't matter. Normally all the things that bind them together, all the similarities that they share, are more than enough to overpower any of the differences. They stand together against the Zangyack. They share the power of Earth's heroes. They're on a spaceship, sure, but it's a spaceship that could have been one of the tall ships from Earth's history. They share a home, meals, life, a language.

Or at least Gai _thought_ they shared a language. The first time it really strikes him that Don is _alien_ is when they're discussing idioms.

"Ugh." Gai stares up at the sun for a few seconds, squinting. "I hope the Zangyack give it a rest for a few days. My head is a sea urchin right now."

Don stares at him, looking first at Gai's face, then the back of his head. "Your head is a spiky sea creature?"

"Uh..." Gai looks at his teammate. "We've gotten maybe ten hours sleep in the last three days, and it's hard to think because of that?"

"Oh." Don nods. "That makes sense. Got it."

Gai frowns in confusion. "What was confusing about it?"

"Everything, for a few seconds." Don waves a hand in a nonchalant way. "Sometimes idioms confuse the translator."

Gai blinks at him. "Translator?"

Don points to the left side of his skull. "Translator. We've all got them. Mine was implanted when I started school. Pure tech. Ahim's got something similar, though she got hers later since her people have this thing about learning languages organically. Joe and Luka have one of the bioform types—more dangerous and volatile, tend to be spread around by the Zangyack to aid in the conquest. That way no one can say they didn't understand orders. Theirs seem fine, though, haven't given them any trouble. Marvelous... I don't even know how to describe his. His people were always spacefarers, and it's some kind of techno-organic composite that was implanted when he was an infant. It's grown with him, and is the best of the lot. I don't think there's a language it can't parse for him within an hour or so of exposure."

Gai stands frozen in the center of the sidewalk, grocery bags dangling from his fingertips as he gapes at Don.

"What?" Don looks down at his jacket, rubbing self-consciously at it. "Does something look wrong? Are you all right?"

"I just... it's not..." Gai gives his head a shake, frowning as he resumes their walk towards the _Galleon_. "I guess I just hadn't thought about how you could understand us."

"What, did you think we all sat down and learned your language?" Don smiles. "That would have been quite the trip. Can you imagine Marvelous and Luka sitting still for language lessons?" Don's smile fades. "Not that no one learns languages the old fashioned way anymore. Ahim's really good at it. She's probably fluent in Japanese by now, maybe some of the other common languages of your planet. But for those of us without a good ear for that sort of thing, the translators help us both understand and speak."

Gai finds himself staring hard at Don's fluffy hair, trying to peer through his seemingly normal exterior to see the alien technology that is allowing this conversation. Nothing has changed about Don's appearance, though—merely about how Gai interprets it. Giving his head one final shake, Gai smiles at his friend. "I guess it doesn't matter much in the end. As long as we can understand each other, right?"

Don smiles in return. "Exactly. And now you'll understand if we get tripped up by something, so I'd say it's a win all around."

The conversation turns to what they'll have for dinner that evening, and Gai begins to forget once more that Don is an alien. It doesn't matter in the end, right? Alien or human, a friend is a friend.

XXX

"Oh, but that's pretty." Luka peers down through the glass case at a rather plain-looking wrist band. It looks to be made of some thin fabric with little jewels set into it at intervals, but compared to most of what tends to draw Luka's eye it seems underwhelming.

Gai peers down at the piece of jewelry, too, being careful to stay out of elbowing range. "Is there something about it that's important?"

"No. It's just pretty." Luka gives a wistful sigh, her fingers splayed against the glass. "One day I'll have a mansion filled with beautiful things just like this. All little intricate patterns and sparkling jewels."

A closer examination of the band doesn't reveal a pattern. "I don't think I'm seeing the same thing you are. It looks pretty plain to me."

Luka gives him a sideways look. "You can't see the design? In _lufri_ , with the center there and branches heading off here and here..."

A little shiver runs down Gai's spine. "I... think there was a glitch in the translator. I didn't catch that... shape? Color? Whatever a lufri is."

"It's a color. You can't see it?" Luka is staring at him as though _he's_ the oddball. "It's... on a spectrum, it's the one above blue?"

"Yeah." Gai pauses, making sure he's going the proper direction. "Humans can't really see ultraviolet without assistance."

"I don't think that's quite the right word, but it's close enough." Luka shrugs. "Trust me. It's there and it's pretty. And one day I'll have a whole wardrobe filled with beautiful things just like it."

Luka skips off, raising her left hand and crooking her fingers for him to follow her. Gai does, giving one last glance towards the piece Luka had been admiring.

It really isn't all that expensive, probably because most people don't see it like Luka does. It will be easy enough for Gai to stop back in and grab it as a gift for sometime when Luka needs a reminder of the beauty in the universe. Whether she's human or not, she's his crewmate, and Gai takes care of his friends.

XXX

Gai pants, wiping sweat away from his eyes and squinting at Joe.

Joe stands patiently, right arm behind his back, sword balanced in his left hand. The tip doesn't waver as he points it at Gai, waiting for Gai to return to the battle.

Gai tries to swallow and finds that he can't. His throat feels swollen, raw and scratchy and drier than a mummy's bones. How long have he and Joe been going at it? A half hour? An hour?

Attempting to retake his own offensive stance, Gai blinks as his vision wavers at the edges. He had been determined to keep up with Joe—Doc saying that no one could had made Gai all the more determined to prove his own worthiness to be on the team. Doc may have been right, though, and passing out during training when the Zangyack may attack at any time would be stupid. "Time out, Joe."

Joe immediately relaxes, sword dropping to his side. The one eye that Gai can see through Joe's long hair is crinkled with concern. "Are you all right?"

"Uh huh. More or less. Just..." Gai swallows again, running his tongue over his lips as he searches for a water bottle. "Just need a drink before we can continue."

Though Joe's shoulders relax, his expression takes on a rueful, understanding cast. "Here. Let me go grab something for you."

Joe is gone and back again almost before Gai can protest, a cold bottle of water in hand. Gai croaks out a thanks before pouring about half the contents down his throat.

Giving a sigh of relief, Gai leans back against the _Galleon's_ rail. He looks over at Joe, surprised that Joe doesn't have a water bottle of his own in hand.

Joe follows Gai's gaze and gives a little shrug. "My species doesn't need as much water as most others. We've got a high thirst point and conserve liquids well."

Gai blinks, caught off guard by the nonchalant way Joe introduces himself as a different species. "Ah... thirst point?"

"We don't get thirsty until we're pretty close to dehydrated. And we don't dehydrate easily." Joe shrugs, coming to lean against the rail next to Gai. His gaze rakes over the clouds surrounding them. "It's one of the reason the Zangyack liked my people as soldiers. Provided you don't put us somewhere stupidly cold, we take less upkeep than a lot of similar troops."

Gai shifts slightly, brushing his arm against Joe's. "I'm sorry."

Joe lifts his shoulders again in a brief shrug. "Doesn't matter now. Just means I'm an even better fighter for you guys."

"You are at that." Gai gives the ex-Zangyack a little salute with his water bottle, taking another sip. "It's weird. I keep forgetting that you guys aren't from around here until something like this comes up."

Joe smiles. "It's easy enough to do. A lot of sentients look the same. Apparently a lot of us come from the same stock, though we've adapted to our own planets. Doesn't really matter, anyway. I'd say your politics are more important than your genetics at this point."

Gai considers that, tilting his head back and looking to the side of the sun. The first time he rode in the _Galleon_ above the clouds he almost blinded himself. He's not going to make the same mistake and gawk at giant flaming celestial objects again. "The heart's always more important than the body. What someone believes and what they do, _that's_ where you see whether or not someone's a hero."

"Spoken like a true fan of the breed." Joe claps Gai on the shoulder. "You're looking better now. Feel like finishing this?"

"I feel like I'm going to be finished pretty soon." Gai smiles wryly, setting his water bottle down and picking up his sword. "But let's get back to it! I won't learn anything just sitting around."

No matter how much DNA they share or don't share, Gai knows that he and Joe will always be crew, standing together against the odds. Nothing could be more important than that.

XXX

"Don't! Not there!"

Gai freezes, lowering his spear and allowing his transformation to dissipate as Ahim grabs his wrist in a vice-grip. He looks between her and the wall he had been intending to destroy, confused.

"There's fire." Ahim reaches out to touch the wall, her fingers dancing lightly over the white surface. "On the other side, and in the wall... smoldering. We break it, it's going to become a conflagration, and the people we're trying to save will end up dead."

"Right." Gai reaches out with a suddenly sweaty palm to touch the wall, trying to feel what Ahim is describing. "Are you sure? I don't feel anything."

"No one else in the crew would, either." Ahim calls the words over her shoulder, walking slowly down the corridor, her fingers still dancing along the wall. "I have an exceptionally dense distribution of thermal neurons. I sense heat and cold better than anyone else on the crew."

Gai follows in Ahim's wake, trusting her to tell him when they're somewhere it will be safe to act. "That sounds useful."

"It can be. Ours was a volatile planet, though beautiful. Being able to sense minor temperature gradients and changes could be the difference between life and death, once upon a time." Ahim smiles sadly. "It can also be a drawback. There's a reason the Zangyack _burned_ my planet."

"Oh." Gai stands frozen, horror rising slowly to turn his veins to ice, hot rage following close behind. "That's _awful_."

"Yes. And exactly what I would expect from the Zangyack." Ahim pauses, her hand moving up and down over a patch of wall. "Here. It should be safe for us to break through and rescue everyone."

Gai's transformation is swift, his motions almost brutal. Ahim transforms, as well, with her usual style and grace. She allows Gai to strike down the wall, darting through as soon as it's clear and heading towards where Navi had pinpointed the hostages to be.

He'll do what Luka does, Gai decides. He'll make sure Ahim has access to blankets or a fan whenever she needs them, and hope in his small way to make up for some of the nightmares she has faced.

XXX

"I don't get it."

Gai looks over at Marvelous, who is once more perched on the very edge of a skyscraper's roof. His arms crossed in front of his chest, the pirate captain stares down at the bustle of a busy Japanese street, a slight frown on his face.

Gai edges closer to the edge, maintaining a respectful distance. He's brave, not stupid, and media throughout his life has always associated the edge of roofs with dangerous things like falling to one's death. That would be a very inglorious way for a hero of justice to go. "What don't you get?"

If Marvelous is afraid of how high up he is or the way the wind whips around his body, it doesn't show. "How all these people just keep doing the same thing, day in and day out, on the same planet. I mean, it's a nice enough planet. We're defending it and all that. But still... you're all just so... so..." Marvelous' frown deepens. "Don't any of you want to leave?"

"Ah." Gai blinks, caught off guard by the question. "Where would we go?"

"Somewhere. Anywhere." Marvelous waves a hand towards the sky, where the _Galleon_ floats above them. "There's a whole _universe_ out there. And yeah, most of it's currently lousy with Zangyack, but still. Lots to see. Lots to do."

"There's lots to see and do here. Besides which..." Gai watches the streams of people, the way everyone merges and departs from the living river with practiced ease. "Most of us _can't_ go anywhere. Technology like you have... it's not something available to just anyone. So we make the most of our planet, which, like you said, is pretty beautiful. It _did_ craft the Greatest Treasure in the Universe, after all."

Marvelous makes a face, jumping down onto the roof proper. "I guess. I've never been much for staying in one place on one planet, though. Just feels too... claustrophobic. Gravity's too constant. Air is too changeable. Weather can ruin your plans without even caring." A vicious glare up at the gathered storm clouds tells Gai that's at least part of the problem.

Gai falls into step at Marvelous' side. "It's weird to me to think about _not_ having weather. About being able to just get in a ship and go... anywhere."

"Weird but pretty great, right?" Marvelous grins, swinging his greatcoat up so that it dangles over his right shoulder, his vest and red shirt standing out sharp against the storm clouds.

A quick glance up at the _Galleon_ has Gai grinning. "Yeah." He can no longer see the crowds in the street, but he can still hear the sounds of humanity continuing about its business despite the alien invasion currently threatening. "Though I think... for a lot of people, leaving the planet is kind of like... kind of like leaving the _Galleon_ would be for you. Fun for a while but you'd want to go back, yeah?"

Marvelous pauses, head tilting like a cat. "I suppose. Unless I found a better ship. But it would take a lot to make a better ship than her." A fond smile flits across his face.

"I—"

Gai is interrupted by a sudden blast of enemy fire, and the roof that they're standing on collapses inward, dissolving beneath their feet.

Gai manages to tuck his body and roll with the impact as they hit the floor, but he knows he's going to be feeling it for the next few days at least. Nothing seems to be broken, though, and as he staggers to his feet he sees Marvelous already up and glaring towards their attackers.

He doesn't know where the Zangyack ships came from. There are three of them, though, and even as Gai stares numbly up at them the nearest ship's weapons begin charging again.

"Gods help us." The woman's voice is a quiet whisper.

It immediately draws both Marvelous and Gai's attention, and Gai is horrified to see that a half-dozen people are standing scattered amidst the debris of the collapsed roof.

Marvelous doesn't hesitate. His eyes track the trajectory of the attack, and his body is catapulting across the distance, shoving human bodies out of the way.

For the second time in less than a minute the floor disappears from under Gai's feet. He doesn't fall as well this time, and a choking cloud of smoke and ash makes it difficult to breathe as he struggles to get his bearings and determine which way is up.

Part of the problem, he realizes belatedly, is that the roof has collapsed around them, leaving them trapped in darkness. Even as Gai scrambles to look for a light, one of the people who had been standing near them turns on their cell phone's light, casting wavering illumination over their situation.

Everyone has survived. Gai's first visual sweep confirms that, and he feels something relax in his chest. These wouldn't be the first people of Earth the Zangyack managed to kill, but every life lost feels like a failure to him.

Marvelous is hurt. Gai's second sweep of the area stutters out as he takes in his captain's appearance. Rubble is covering Marvelous' right leg. Blood is dripping down from his black hair, pattering in a strange pattern on the beige carpet.

"We're alive." A woman sitting behind Marvelous gives her head a dazed shake, and then reaches out to touch the pirate's shoulder. "You... you saved us."

Marvelous turns one of his broad grins on her. "What are you talking about? I just—"

Another of the bystanders lunges forward, and before Gai has realized what's happening the man's fist connects with Marvelous' jaw.

Gai crosses the space between himself and Marvelous within a second, shoving the office worker away. The man staggers back, tripping over rubble and coming to rest against a slab of collapsed building. A painting is still stuck to the light blue wall, looking oddly out of place in the washed-out lighting of their tomb.

Sitting up under his own power, Marvelous glares daggers at the man who punched him. "What the hell was that about?"

The man is shaking as he pushes himself back to his feet. "Your fault. This is _your fault_! You and your crew brought these monsters here! Look at what's happened! This has been my job for a _decade_. How am I supposed to take care of my family now? Rent's already been skyrocketing because of all the property damage. Why couldn't you aliens just _stay away_?"

The woman who had first approached Marvelous is sitting with her hands over her mouth, tears glinting in the white light as it passes over her.

Marvelous' gaze flicks from his attacker to the woman and back, and he smiles with bared teeth. "I go where I want when I want. And I wanted to come here. Just because you've got a typical groundling small mind doesn't mean the rest of the universe does."

With a grunt of effort, Marvelous pulls his leg free of the rubble. His ankle looks strange, off-set, but he bends his leg so he can reach it, tugs on his boot, and a moment later is staggering to his feet, so he couldn't have been too badly hurt.

"All right, you lot." Marvelous scans his eyes over their little group of survivors. "We need to get out of here. Anyone know the building plan?"

A nervous-looking young man raises his hand tentatively. "I do, though I'm not sure how much it'll help."

"It always helps to know where everything was before gravity got wonky. Objects don't teleport, after all, so if you know where something started then—"

A rumbling drifts up through their feet, and Gai and Marvelous share a look. It fades, returns, fades—and begins spiking.

Gai watches Marvelous just closely enough to know they won't be getting in each other's way as they both lunge towards the non-combatants. This time Gai is ready for the loss of floor beneath his feet, and he's able to both guide his descent and try to keep rubble off the four survivors closest to him as they tumble down a suddenly steep incline.

Marvelous does the same, and the two of them grin at each other after Marvelous has batted the last piece of falling rubble away with his sword. So long as the Zangyack don't just blow up the whole building, it shouldn't be long before the two of them have worked their way free and are back in the fray.

The irate man from before shoves Marvelous forward, bracing himself so that he's actually able to stagger the pirate.

Marvelous turns on the man, his sword tip suddenly hovering just above the idiot's throat. "Enough."

The man glares at Marvelous, his eyes wide from fear and the uncertain lighting. "You're going to get us all killed. All for some stupid treasure."

"Is that what you all believe?" Marvelous' eyes rake over the huddled office workers.

A young woman who was likely a secretary glances up at Marvelous and then begins shaking her head vigorously. "No. I was... I was really happy when you came. And I've seen the footage of you fighting the Zangyack. I think they would have come whether you did or not."

"Though it's..." An older woman in a dirty, slightly bloody skirt attempts to smooth the fabric over her knees. "Seeing you take on the appearances of our old heroes... it's hard not to feel like... to think that perhaps—"

"You're a thief." The original protester spits out the accusation. "A thief and a monster who's going to get us all killed."

"Look, pal—" Marvelous doesn't move his sword, keeping it hovering just a centimeter or so from the man's throat.

The sound of twisting, tormented metal interrupts whatever the pirate captain was going to say. Marvelous and Gai both look up, watching as an exposed girder gives way beneath its load.

Gai tries to move, but Marvelous is faster. His shoulder connects with the chest of his accuser, sending the man staggering back.

A hail of large concrete blocks rains down, sending dust spiraling up to block out vision for a few seconds. Gai coughs, trying to wave the mist away as he feels his way towards where his captain had been. "Marvelous? Marv—"

"Here." Marvelous' voice is weaker than it had been, but the fingers that grip Gai's wrist are strong. "Here. Though I... I might need to ask you... to do some things for me."

The dust is settling back down, giving everyone's skin an ashen pallor. Marvelous looks paler than the rest, though, and it doesn't take Gai long to see why.

Marvelous' right leg is pinned by a block of rubble again, but this time there's no doubt that at least one if not multiple bones are broken, because there's no way his foot should be pointing _that_ way when the rest of him is pointing _this_ way.

"Get the stupid rock off." Marvelous scrambles at the block, which doesn't move at all despite his efforts.

Gai stares between the piece of rubble and his captain's face, trying to remember everything he's seen and heard about first aid. "I don't think I'm supposed to. If you're bleeding, then—"

"I'm _not human_ , all right, and I need... it... _off_." Marvelous continues to paw at the rock, sweat beading on his face and mixing with blood to drip down in crimson beads.

Gai doesn't hesitate again. Given how long Marvelous has been doing this, he trusts the pirate to know what's best for him. Hooking his fingertips under the rock, he strains to lift it.

Other hands join his a moment later, and Gai almost drops the piece of rubble back into place as three of the survivors begin helping him lift the piece of masonry. A fourth—the young woman who had touched Marvelous' shoulder at the start of all this—hooks her arms under Marvelous' and hauls him out of the way as soon as they've managed to lift the hunk of rock.

Gai is a little afraid when they drop the rock back into place that the floor will cave in again, but though it vibrates under his feet it seems to hold steady. After a few seconds of careful monitoring to make sure he doesn't need to act on that front, Gai moves to Marvelous' side again.

Marvelous is breathing hard, his fingers curled into claws that rake uselessly at the short, utilitarian carpet. "Set it. Now."

"Uh..." Gai swallows as he looks down at the mess the rubble made of Marvelous' leg. "I... I really don't think—"

"I heal... really fast. If you don't... or I don't... it's going... to be a mess." Marvelous squeezes his eyes closed, just breathing for a few seconds. "Come on, Gai. You're not... getting squeamish, are you, human?"

Marvelous manages to make the word _human_ into a sneer, though the pain haunting his eyes takes any potential sting out of it. If Gai's being honest he _does_ feel squeamish looking at the twisted mass of bone and skin and blood and black material, but if this is something that needs to be done... well, it's something that needs to be done.

Most of the damage seems to be below the knee, so Gai places one hand firmly on Marvelous' thigh. "This is going to hurt. Could a few of you—"

Gai doesn't have to say more than that. He can't tell if it's the same group of people who helped him lift the stone or a different group, but one person holds Marvelous' hands while two practically lie on top of him so that Gai can do his work.

He never, ever wants to have to do that again. His appreciation for Tatsumi's ability to work in the medical field skyrockets as he feels bone grinding against bone, but he thinks he manages to get everything relatively straight.

"Good." Marvelous exhales forcefully as he says the word. His teeth chatter together for a moment before he clenches his jaw, stopping them. "Splint it."

Gai has no idea how to make a proper splint, but there are pieces of shattered office furniture lying around, and he ends up holding three scarves and two belts. The contraption he improvises doesn't look very nice, but it's probably functional.

Trying to wipe his hands off on a ragged edge of one of the scarves, Gai frowns and peers a little closer at his skin. "Uh... Marvelous? Is your blood _supposed_ to look kind of green?"

There's no answer, and Gai's heart climbs up into his throat.

Skittering up to Marvelous' head, Gai taps gently on his captain's cheek. "Marvelous? Captain?"

Marvelous manages to blink and turn his head slightly, squinting muzzily up at Gai. "Yeah. Thanks."

Gai puts his hands against Marvelous' neck, feeling his pulse. It's present, and it feels steady, but what's an alien's pulse supposed to be like?

"You said..." Marvelous frowns, and his eyes drift closed. "Forgot what you said."

"Hey. Hey hey." Gai touches Marvelous' shoulder, afraid to shake him. Does his skin feel colder than usual? Other than the little jaw chatter he hasn't been shivering, but maybe... Gai's grasping at straws and he knows it.

"Go away." Marvelous bats ineffectually at Gai's hand. "My ship. I can sleep if I want to."

Oh, that's not good. It doesn't take a trained medic to know that hallucinating is bad.

Pulling out his gokai cellular, Gai opens up a call to the rest of the team. "Come on come on someone pick up—"

"Gai-san." Ahim's voice is calm, just as steady as ever, though Gai can hear fighting in the background. "Where are you and the captain?"

"The building that was targeted at the start of this? We were up there. Don't ask why—I swear sometimes Marvelous thinks he's a bird—but the important thing is it collapsed and Marvelous is hurt and—" Gai looks down to see one of his assistants poking at the pool of Marvelous' blood, which has definitely taken on a copper-green sheen. "Don't touch that! Alien blood!"

The woman gives him an aggrieved look. " _You're_ covered in it. And you're human, right?"

"I am one hundred percent Earth born, but now is not the time. Guys!" Gai lowers his voice as the rubble around them groans. "We're trapped in the building with a group of human survivors. Marvelous' leg got messed up pretty bad, and he had me set it, but now he's almost unconscious and his blood's turning green and—"

"How green?" Joe cuts in, his voice grimmer than Gai has heard it since they faced down Barizorg.

Gai looks at his hand and then at the puddle. "Uh... more like a green sheen right now? Most of it's still red."

"Is he cold?" Luka sounds more annoyed than worried, which allows Gai's heart rate to slow down a little.

Gai gestures for one of the people who don't have blood all over their hands to feel Marvelous' skin. "Is he cold?"

The man raises his shoulders in a hesitant shrug. "Kind of? His skin feels colder than mine."

Joe's voice takes over again. "Which it shouldn't. He should run hotter than a human."

Gai bites down any comments about Marvelous being hot-blooded. He can say them later, when he's not concerned about a terrible joke being the last thing Marvelous hears from him. "So I need to get him warm."

"Get him warm, and get water into him. Oh, no you don't, you little—" Luka has clearly turned her attention from the conversation to her battle, which sounds like it's going poorly for the zugormin involved.

"Also get protein into him. He heals fast, especially with bad injuries, but it takes a toll on his body." If the cold in a voice could kill, all the enemies around Joe would be dead now. Gai suspects they are, anyway, but death by sword probably hurts more. "We'll come find you in just a few minutes."

"Okay." Gai looks up, spotting little glimmers of light that may indicate the sun. "Just be careful. Everything's kind of wobbly in here right now."

"We'll be careful. Now, if you'll excuse us..." The sound of Ahim very politely shooting enemies is cut off after a second or two.

Gai looks down at Marvelous, then up at the others. Words die in his throat as a collection of battered suit jackets is handed to him.

"Do you think..." The woman who had tried to touch Marvelous' blood bites her lip. "Would he mind if we were to lie down next to him? To try to warm him..."

"Uh... if I'm there, too, probably not." Gai begins arranging the still-warm jackets around Marvelous' body. "But we also need—"

"Water and protein." The nervous young man smiles. "It's a small area. We all heard the whole conversation."

"I..." The older woman raises her hand. "I used to work down in this office. The staff lounge is right through that door that's only partially blocked. We should be able to find something to fit our needs, if someone's willing to risk it."

"Why bother?" The man that Marvelous saved—the one who said Marvelous is to blame for the Zangyack—has stayed huddled as far away from Marvelous and Gai as he can manage. "Let the alien die."

Gai stares incredulously at the man. "He just saved your life!"

"It wouldn't have been in danger if not for him!" The man quiets as a spattering of small pebbles falls from the ceiling. "Come on. The rest of you know it. And we don't even have to do anything. Just leave him alone..."

No one says anything to the man. There's just a subtle rearranging of backs. The old woman stands, smoothing her skirt again. "Would someone like to come with me?"

The young woman curls around Marvelous' head, stroking his hair, while the nervous young man begins chafing at Marvelous' left arm while Gai massages his right.

Gai bites down on his bottom lip, resisting the urge to cry. _This_ is why he loves his planet and his people. _This_ is what makes them worth fighting for. "Come on, Marvelous. Wake up enough to tell me I'm being ridiculous."

Marvelous mumbles something incomprehensible under his breath, but Gai doesn't let that discourage him.

Heroes never give up, after all.

XXX

The rest of the crew finds them an interminable fifteen minutes later.

The expedition to the staff lounge had been successful, and there's almost a cautiously festive air to their little chamber as everyone shares water, milk tea, and the bento boxes that had been in the refrigerator. Gai sits at Marvelous' head, helping him to eat. At first it had been difficult, but after a half-dozen bites Marvelous became his usual food-motivated self, though his words are still only half-comprehensible.

Joe kneels down by Marvelous' side as Ahim and Luka begin helping survivors out of the hole and onto the _Galleon's_ deck. His taut shoulders relax after only a few seconds' study. "Healing nicely, and the blood's already back to red."

"That's good?" Gai looks from Joe to Don. "Red is good?"

Joe nods. "Means he's not in shock anymore."

"Which means he'll survive." Don smiles at Gai. "His species made some interesting modifications to themselves when they took to the stars. Basically if something doesn't kill them within ten or fifteen minutes, and they don't go comatose from shock, they'll survive."

"Oh." Gai nods. "I... guess that makes sense."

Joe claps Gai on the shoulder. "Thank you. For taking care of him."

"I don't need it." Marvelous slits his eyes open, the ghost of his typical smile flitting across his face. "I had it under control."

"What you had was a compound fracture of all three of the major bones here." Joe's hand lightly touches the splint. "Come on. Let's get you back to the _Galleon_ so you can heal properly."

"Good plan. Off the planet." Marvelous nods, eyes drifting closed again. "Planets stay way too still. They shouldn't do that. They should move like a ship moves."

"Uh huh." Joe gathers Marvelous up.

"A good ship. Not a jitter-ship. Nice solid ship..." Marvelous trails off as they step onto the _Galleon's_ deck, his limp body cradled in his first mate's arms.

Gai follows Joe as they make their way to the living center of the _Galleon_ , glad to have someone else in charge of the crisis for the moment.

XXX

Gai watches Marvelous as his captain tears into another piece of chicken. "It really was pretty great the way you saved that guy."

Marvelous shrugs. "Didn't do it for him."

Gai arches an eyebrow. "You did it because you _wanted_ to get squashed by a giant block of stone?"

Marvelous hesitates, then shrugs. "I heal. Your people don't do that as well."

Arms falling to his side, Gai bites at his lip. "You're... look, you're probably just going to say you're a pirate and you do what you want. But it was a heroic thing to do. It... no matter what that idiot was saying, you're more human than a lot of people out there."

"Hm." Marvelous pauses, chewing his mouthful more thoroughly than the ones before. "I don't think I like that."

Gai frowns. "What?"

"That phrase. 'More human'. 'Being human'. I get why you guys use it, dominant species on the planet and all that, but it's silly. I'm not human at all. Neither are any of the others. We're just people. Doing what we want. What we can." Marvelous takes another bite. "Chasing our dreams. Not like humans have a monopoly on any of that."

"That's... very true." Gai frowns. "It doesn't sound right to say 'more people' or something like that. So." Grinning, Gai runs his fingers over his changer. "Let's just say more heroic and leave it at that."

Marvelous rolls his eyes. "You and your heroes."

Gai's grin doesn't falter as he watches his captain continue to eat. Whether they're human or not, whether they want to admit they're heroic or not, this crew is the thirty-fifth super sentai team. They're heroes through to their core, though most of them have, for one reason or another, decided to reject the term.

They're his crew. They're his friends.

And even if they're not human, they're the best thing that's happened in Gai's life so far.


End file.
